[They emerge as the saviors of the world, co-pilots and virtual strangers who have only known each other for three days, have been inside each other's heads three times and Raleigh knows that he is inexplicably attached to her afterwards, even if he knows nothing else. He loves her but is that as a friend? A lover? He really doesn't know, he can't pull it apart in his head, separate Mako the woman from Mako in the Drift and he knows that she's just as confused and lost about it too.
So he suggests they just be friends. Because he's tired of being alone and he doesn't think she wants to be on her own completely either and they have that victory press tour to think about, so what if it's just them against the world and they'll figure it all out later.
A year later and Raleigh doesn't fall into his answer, he gets slapped in the face with it. She's undeniably his best friend, they travel the world together, answer questions and let people take their pictures. They slip away to hole in the wall restaurants almost every night and eat off each other's plates. He tells dirty jokes in Japanese that make her burst out laughing at the worst times. She comes up behind him and rubs his shoulder whenever it's bothering him without ever being asked.
They share an apartment but they sleep in separate rooms, minus the peppering of nightmares, once or twice a month when one of them shows up at the other's room and just doesn't want to be alone that night. They start to lead different lives, Mako is recruited for the restoration projects and Raleigh kind of floats around, working odd jobs. Some nights he doesn't come home until long after she's asleep. Other nights he has a pizza and a movie waiting for her because she's a workaholic and she stayed too late again.
Raleigh doesn't think any further on what they are and what she means to him, because this is enough, this is comfortable until he knocks on her bedroom door, hey Mako let's go get some sushi and catch a movie--
--Not tonight, Raleigh, I have a date.
Those four words stun him completely. She has a date. And why shouldn't Mako have a date, she's young, beautiful, smart, accomplished. Any guy would be lucky to have a shot with her. Raleigh just realizes it too late, after her date arrives and she runs out with a bye Raleigh thrown over her shoulder-- that he doesn't want her to go on a date. She's his, his best friend, his co-pilot, that guy will never know her like he does and he's jealous but of what?
That Mako is forging a connection with someone else? Or that she's not going on a date with him?
He won't have an answer to that, by the time she comes home. Raleigh is more or less waiting up for her, like a faithful guard dog, with a rented movie playing on the TV, sushi he ordered in because he really wanted it but not enough to brave the world by himself, sitting on the cough with his knitting. And seriously trying to solve this Mako problem.]
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this is my (failed) attempt at a platonic thread
So he suggests they just be friends. Because he's tired of being alone and he doesn't think she wants to be on her own completely either and they have that victory press tour to think about, so what if it's just them against the world and they'll figure it all out later.
A year later and Raleigh doesn't fall into his answer, he gets slapped in the face with it. She's undeniably his best friend, they travel the world together, answer questions and let people take their pictures. They slip away to hole in the wall restaurants almost every night and eat off each other's plates. He tells dirty jokes in Japanese that make her burst out laughing at the worst times. She comes up behind him and rubs his shoulder whenever it's bothering him without ever being asked.
They share an apartment but they sleep in separate rooms, minus the peppering of nightmares, once or twice a month when one of them shows up at the other's room and just doesn't want to be alone that night. They start to lead different lives, Mako is recruited for the restoration projects and Raleigh kind of floats around, working odd jobs. Some nights he doesn't come home until long after she's asleep. Other nights he has a pizza and a movie waiting for her because she's a workaholic and she stayed too late again.
Raleigh doesn't think any further on what they are and what she means to him, because this is enough, this is comfortable until he knocks on her bedroom door, hey Mako let's go get some sushi and catch a movie--
--Not tonight, Raleigh, I have a date.
Those four words stun him completely. She has a date. And why shouldn't Mako have a date, she's young, beautiful, smart, accomplished. Any guy would be lucky to have a shot with her. Raleigh just realizes it too late, after her date arrives and she runs out with a bye Raleigh thrown over her shoulder-- that he doesn't want her to go on a date. She's his, his best friend, his co-pilot, that guy will never know her like he does and he's jealous but of what?
That Mako is forging a connection with someone else? Or that she's not going on a date with him?
He won't have an answer to that, by the time she comes home. Raleigh is more or less waiting up for her, like a faithful guard dog, with a rented movie playing on the TV, sushi he ordered in because he really wanted it but not enough to brave the world by himself, sitting on the cough with his knitting. And seriously trying to solve this Mako problem.]